Reflection On Canada’s Involvement In UN Long-Term Support To Peacekeeping

The Canadian Forces take part in a number of roles for the United Nations. Currently, Canada supports the United Nations missions in Cyprus, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Mail and the Republic of South Sudan. They provide tactical airlift support, an aviation task force, a quick reaction force, provides training for peace operations and money for “new projects to modernize and enhance peace operations, better prevent and address conflict, and build sustainable peace. ”

Pros:

• Core objective is to reduce conflict by using a multidisciplinary approach in order to prevent violence and save lives
• Uses diplomacy to try to resolve conflicts between parties
• Uses military force to compel parties to stop fighting, preventing loss of civilian life.
• Cons:
• Requires long-term commitment, investment and risk (which is often difficult to sell citizens at home)
• By supporting the democratization of countries receiving support from the UN, the political competition of democracy may add to the divisiveness in already contentious societies.
• Success rate of peacebuilding is not high.
• It’s very difficult to provide the amount of troops and equipment that would be necessary to control large countries like Congo.

I believe Canada should continue to provide long-term support to peacekeeping, peacebuilding and peacemaking operations around the world. It is important, to me, that once Canada gives its support to a UN mission, it stays there until there is some sense of lasting peace. As multiple linked articles stated, it is too common that countries withdraw their support for the missions too soon, leading to further degradation of the situation. With total support and enthusiasm for the pursuit of peace in a few, select countries, I believe Canada can provide lasting peace for people around the world. 4. I do believe that peacekeeping can be an effective strategy to solve conflicts. Since the 1990s, the UN has been taking on more multidimensional missions, with additional intentions to address the causes of the conflict too (i. e. reconstruction of the economy, police and judicial systems, etc. ). With these new mandates, the UN has shown that it has learnt from past failures and made an attempt to understand how best to solve complex conflicts. With this in mind, I believe the UN can continue to learn from past failures and provide better support to solving the conflicts of today.

Operation Goal: The goal of the Canadian operation is to support the United Nations in their efforts to provide the conditions for peace, development, and prosperity in Mali.

Canada’s Role in the Operation

The role of the Canadian Armed Forces will be to assist the United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in Mali (MINUSMA) by transporting troops, medical evacuees, equipment and supplies by air and through logistical support. The mission is to last 12 months, beginning in the summer of 2018.